Filmed at a series of outstanding performances at the Teatro Real de Madrid in December 2016, this recording will especially delight lovers of Wagnerian music drama with its faithful reflection of the grandiose staging of Àlex Ollé, a member of La Fura dels Baus, whose earlier productions have attracted widespread attention. A conductor equally at home in Monteverdi, Boulez, Praetorius and Schumann, Pablo Heras-Casado can rely on a cast totally committed to this breathtaking musical hurricane!

Label: harmonia mundi
Release Date: November 24, 2017

Critical acclaim

“A taut, thrilling Wagner debut from Heras-Casado coupled with a truly spectacular production by the Catalan director Àlex Ollé, who makes stunning use of video-projections and sets the opera in contemporary Chittagong, where the central themes of arranged marriage and ‘ghost’-ships play out rather more convincingly than it might sound on paper…”

Presto Classical

Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017

“The performance benefits greatly from the focused conducting of Pablo Heras-Casado, whose pacing and style are bracing. He approaches the music as a storyteller, not with bombast and over-refinement. Rather than the extreme contrasts so often heard (or aspired to) in Senta’s ballad, the scene moves in stages of intensity, like self-hypnosis. The conductor has the principals and chorus living their words, molding their musical lines, balancing control and abandon. Slow tempos, especially in the lover’s duet, stay taut and dynamic, and dialogue scenes benefit from orchestral restraint. There’s much to relish in Heras-Casado’s transparent textures and subtle transitions between scenes.”